Kendall Jenner: ‘Acne Ruined My Self-Esteem’
Kendall Jenner opens up about her struggle with acne.
Kendall Jenner’s face is no stranger to red carpets and paparazzi flashes, but that doesn’t mean the 19-year-old has always been comfortable in the spotlight. “I had such bad acne when I was younger; I remember it SO well!” Jenner revealed in a post her subscription-based website. “I started having skin issues around the 8th or 9th grade.” She acknowledges that lots of people struggle with teenage acne and explains how it isn’t just a superficial concern: “Where it really impacted me was how self-conscious I became about it. It completely ruined my self-esteem.”
Jenner pictured in 2010 at age 15 with minor acne. (Photo: Getty)
Photos of Jenner at 14 and 15 reveal some minor acne, but regardless of the severity of her case, her confidence was damaged. “I wouldn’t even look at people when I talked to them,” Jenner writes. “I felt like such an outcast; when I spoke, it was with my hand covering my face.”
Jenner now attributes her perfect skin to her “incredible dermatologist”, growing out of it, Laser Genesis, and the advice from her sisters to keep her hands off her face and never pick. As for her restored confidence, talking with her family helped Jenner feel better about herself. “I’m working towards not caring and I’m in so much of a better place about it all now that I’m older,” Jenner writes. “Even after things started to clear up, it took a solid amount of time to be okay with my skin and gain back my confidence.” But she admits that just “one zit” makes her feel self-conscious still. However, she now reminds herself, “I realized that it’s a part of life for some people and it doesn’t define who you are.” Given Jenner’s huge following and successful modeling career, including a major beauty contract with Estee Lauder, it’s a surprise that finding her confidence is a fairly recent achievement. She says her acne has been clear for about three years now.
Jenner had the luxury of enlisting lots of professional help to alleviate her acne, but it may have been her sisters’ simple instruction that really nipped her condition in the bud. Dermatologist Annie Chiu tells Yahoo Beauty that her most important piece of advice for every type of acne is not to pick. “I tell everyone that to avoid scarring and worsening, don’t pick at any of them,” Chiu says. “I understand that there is a compulsiveness, but you have to recognize that this is very tempting and instead put on a gentle topical treatment as many times a day as you want, every time you feel like picking.” Good advice, and it’s free.
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